SPAIN BACKS ARGENTINA’S DEBT RENEGOTIATION WITH IMF

Spain's President Pedro Sanchez on Tuesday, May 11, 2021, affirmed that his government supports the renegotiation of Argentina's $45 billion debt with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), teleSUR reported.

"The IMF's surcharge mechanism is damaging Argentina's economic and financial possibilities," Sanchez said during a press conference with Argentinian President Alberto Fernandez at the Moncloa Palace.

Fernandez has demanded the suspension of the application of surcharges to countries that exceeded their credits because “they triple the debt service.”

Sanchez said Spain and other Latin American nations expect multilateral institutions to provide financial resources to middle-income countries to facilitate the recovery of their economic activity to pre-pandemic levels.

"What we are asking is to suspend this mechanism during the pandemic," said Fernandez, who expects the IMF to discuss this issue at its October meeting.

Obtaining European support for debt renegotiation with the IMF is the main goal of Fernandez, who already got the backing of Portugal on Monday. He is also seeking support to renegotiate a $2.4 billion debt with the Paris Club.

Sanchez and Fernandez also agreed on the need to guarantee universal access to COVID-19, a position that Spain is defending within the European Union (EU.)

"We have presented a position paper in the EU to support patent liberalization.

However, to universalize the vaccine, we also want to encourage the transfer of knowledge and technology, increase production capacities, and speed up its distribution," Sanchez said.

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